Andrew Greystoke, the controversial small company investment operator whose Atlantic Law company is introducer of companies into the PLUS Quoted market, has found a new enthusiasm. He is making Atlantic Law a sponsor of flotations on Alternext, the trading platform for fledgling European companies’ shares launched by Euronext, a subsidiary of the New York Stock Exchange.

Marble Arch-based Greystoke, whose role in past corporate punch-ups earned him the City nickname Tarzan, says companies can raise between £4 and £28 million on Alternext, which he says is cheaper than AIM, requires two years of audit for any company and a minimum fund raising of €5 million (£3 million). According to Greystoke, Atlantic Law has forged links with three French brokers seeing this market as an antechamber to Euronext and is talking about several potential Chinese floats on Alternext.

Not that Tarzan has abandoned PLUS. He recently used the market to float Fluid Leader, a company founded by Paul Davidson (‘the Plumber’) and backed by the Emir of Sharjah, which can help join pipe sections together without welding, using a collar, and is raising money there for sturgeon farming pioneer Caviar.

A French concern, Stadiarena, with a system for quickly converting parts of large sports grounds into smaller self-contained venues, is also in the queue. An earlier Atlantic PLUS financial protégé, First London, ran into embarrassment when parts of its Belgravia Financial Services acquisition hit the buffers, though Greystoke has expressed hopes about another deal there.